The L1 EVM Landscape: Where Ethereum Classic Fits

The EVM ecosystem has grown from two chains in 2016 to dozens of Layer 1 blockchains and Layer 2 rollups. Each chain makes different trade-offs in consensus, decentralization, throughput, and governance. Understanding the landscape helps contextualize Ethereum Classic's position.

## Layer 1 EVM Chains

**Ethereum (PoS)**
The largest EVM chain by market capitalization and developer activity. Transitioned from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake in September 2022. Focuses on rollup-centric scaling through EIP-4844 blob transactions. Validator set is permissionless but requires 32 ETH minimum stake.

**Binance Smart Chain (PoSA)**
A high-throughput EVM chain using Proof of Staked Authority consensus with a limited validator set. Offers low fees and fast block times. Trade-off: smaller, permissioned validator set compared to fully decentralized chains.

**Avalanche C-Chain (PoS)**
An EVM-compatible chain within Avalanche's multi-chain architecture. Uses Snowball consensus for fast finality. Supports custom subnets for application-specific chains.

**Fantom (PoS)**
A DAG-based chain with EVM compatibility, offering fast transaction finality through its Lachesis consensus mechanism.

**Ethereum Classic (PoW)**
The original EVM chain, maintaining Proof of Work consensus and the unaltered pre-fork state. No minimum stake, no validator set, no identity requirements for block production.

## Layer 2 Rollups

Layer 2 solutions execute transactions off the main Ethereum chain while inheriting its security:

- **Optimistic rollups** (Optimism, Arbitrum): Assume transactions are valid, with a challenge period for fraud proofs
- **ZK rollups** (zkSync, Polygon zkEVM): Use zero-knowledge proofs to validate transaction batches cryptographically

Rollups are Ethereum-specific infrastructure. ETC operates as a standalone L1 and does not currently have or require L2 solutions.

## ETC's Distinguishing Characteristics

In the L1 landscape, ETC is differentiated by several factors:

**Consensus:** ETC is the only major EVM chain still secured by Proof of Work. Block production requires computational expenditure, making censorship economically costly rather than politically enforceable.

**Immutable ledger:** ETC has never performed an irregular state change. The ledger reflects every transaction exactly as executed, without retroactive modifications.

**Fixed supply:** ECIP-1017 established a hard cap of approximately 210.7 million ETC with a known, predictable emission schedule. No governance mechanism can alter this.

**No validator set:** There is no identifiable group of validators who can be compelled to filter transactions. Mining is permissionless and pseudonymous.

These characteristics are not claims of superiority — they are factual trade-offs. Higher throughput chains sacrifice some decentralization. More decentralized chains may have lower throughput. ETC has chosen maximum resistance to censorship and state modification as its primary design goals.